Sonder Brand Guidelines: Montreal’s Flatbook, a Marriott Collection & a 2025 Closure

A student sublet in Montreal.

Sonder began in Montreal. English Wikipedia says Francis Davidson, then a student at McGill University, started subletting his own apartment in 2012 and managing the apartments of out-of-town students over the summers, and that in 2014 the business was founded as Flatbook, later renamed Sonder, and joined FounderFuel, a Montreal start-up accelerator. Sources differ on the founding team and year: English Wikipedia names Lucas Pellan as co-founder, ShortTermRentalz named Martin Picard in 2025, and Surface magazine named both in 2020 and gave 2012 as the founding year. Marriott International’s 2024 announcement gives 2014.

After 2016 the company was based in San Francisco, English Wikipedia says. Its model was not a marketplace: Sonder leased and ran its own rentals, aiming at travellers who wanted more room than a hotel room but a more predictable stay than a home let by an amateur host. Guests checked in through a mobile app and used it for support, and housekeeping and maintenance were outsourced, according to the same article.

In 2019 Sonder announced projects in Dallas, Denver, Miami, New York City and Philadelphia, and in April 2021 it reopened the Flatiron Hotel in Manhattan, after signing a lease for it in 2019, English Wikipedia records. In January 2022 it became a public company on the Nasdaq through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company.

At its height, English Wikipedia says, Sonder managed more than 9,000 units in more than 40 cities across North America, Europe and Dubai. In January 2021 it announced a planned expansion in Quebec, including hiring 700 people there over five years, and in January 2022 it signed agreements to operate three properties in Washington, D.C.

Apartments with an in-house design team.

Design was part of Sonder’s pitch. In July 2020 Surface magazine described a network of more than 11,000 apartments in US cities, in European cities including London and Rome, and in Dubai, and said Sonder had operated from the outset “as a travel company for the mobile phone generation”: in place of front-desk clerks, guests received an access code and concierge services through the app. The magazine said its in-house design team avoided “copy-and-paste aesthetics,” and quoted Davidson: “A core principle is to celebrate architecture and the arts.”

The same interview set out the brand’s ambition. Davidson spoke of “a collection of great spaces with killer architecture that you can seamlessly book on your phone,” and of adding more traditional hotel elements such as restaurants and bars, which the magazine said already existed in many of its buildings through partnerships. The article was illustrated with Sonder interiors in Philadelphia, Savannah and Montreal.

In August 2024 Marriott International announced a long-term licensing agreement under which Sonder’s portfolio, mainly apartment-style accommodation in urban markets, would join Marriott’s system as a new collection called “Sonder by Marriott Bonvoy.” Marriott said it expected more than 9,000 rooms to be added by the end of 2024 and about 1,500 more later, and that Marriott Bonvoy members would be able to earn and redeem points at about 200 properties. Marriott described Sonder’s properties as apartment-style accommodation and small boutique hotels with a “digital-first operating model” aimed at longer stays and younger travellers, and expected full integration with Marriott.com and the Marriott Bonvoy app in 2025. ShortTermRentalz described the deal in June 2025 as a 20-year agreement and reported that the integration, which opened with an early-access period in October 2024, was complete. In June 2025 Davidson stepped down as chief executive, and the board chair Janice Sears became interim chief executive.

Platforms and managers.

Holiday rental companies fall into two broad groups: marketplaces, which list homes run by others, and managers, which run the homes themselves. Vacasa, which English Wikipedia describes as a vacation rental management company, and Sonder, which leased and operated its own apartments, belong to the second group. A manager answers to owners or landlords as well as to guests, and Vacasa built a separate app for the owners whose homes it looked after, according to the same source.

Search and listing pages carry much of this work. In 2019 Vacasa began showing its rental homes directly in Google search results, English Wikipedia says, and in July 2026, ShortTermRentalz reported, TravelAI relaunched Sonder.com as a booking site whose listings would be selected for design, location and quality. In a 2020 profile, Surface magazine illustrated Sonder with photographs of its interiors in Philadelphia, Savannah and Montreal, and quoted its founder on celebrating “architecture and the arts.”

Naming follows ownership. When Marriott International signed its licensing agreement with Sonder in August 2024, the portfolio was to join its system as a collection called “Sonder by Marriott Bonvoy.” In 2026 the operator Prism opened former Sonder buildings in the United States under its Belvilla brand, as Belvilla District 6, and Casago’s franchisees trade under place names such as Casago San Diego and Casago Belize, ShortTermRentalz reported.

Apps sit at the centre of the guest’s stay. Surface described Sonder guests receiving an access code and concierge services through an app in place of a front desk. This guide sets out each company’s founding, owners, listings and sales as dated facts, and marks clearly what rests only on a company’s own word.

A name sold on after the company closed.

Sonder stopped trading in November 2025. On 9 November Marriott said the agreement was “no longer in effect due to Sonder’s default,” and Sonder properties came off Marriott’s booking channels, ShortTermRentalz reported on 10 November. The BBC reported on 13 November that Sonder had gone bankrupt and was seeking insolvency proceedings in every territory where it operated; the company pointed, among other things, to “prolonged challenges” in integrating its systems and booking arrangements with Marriott. English Wikipedia says Sonder filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in the United States on 13 November 2025.

Its pieces went separate ways. In March 2026 ShortTermRentalz reported that Prism, formerly OYO, had leased 10 of 79 former Sonder properties offered through the bankruptcy process and used them to launch its Belvilla brand in the United States, starting with The Dutch and Court Square in Long Island City, New York, and The Louie in New Orleans. In July 2026 the same publication reported that UpNext Ventures, the parent of the travel technology company TravelAI, had bought the Sonder word mark, more than 50 trademark registrations and over 70 domain names from the estates of Sonder’s Canadian companies, after the Superior Court of Québec approved the sale on 6 July. TravelAI relaunched Sonder.com as a discovery and booking site for apartment-style homes and boutique hotels supplied by partners; it does not operate the properties, it did not take over Sonder’s leases or staff, and it is not affiliated with Sonder Holdings.

For a design guide, Sonder shows a hospitality brand built around architecture and an app, and a name that was sold on after the company behind it closed. Compare Belvilla, whose owner took over several former Sonder buildings, and Airbnb, which the BBC named as Sonder’s rival. For this guide we use a deep ink blue and a clay with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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